ACCORDING TO
THE STANDARDS OF QUR’AN
OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT
Truths, Discrepancies, Contradictions
Yusuf Ulucan
INTRODUCTION
A.
In today’s world there are two major religions which have celestial and universal characteristics: Christianity and Islam... In the past the attitudes and behaviours of the members of these two religions to each other composed world’s history and geography. That is to say in the future the attitudes and behaviours of the members of these two religions to each other will dominate the direction of the world.
Because of the technological progresses, political and economical structuring, problems of the world and so members of these communities frequently come across and have to act in unison. Therefore both parties inescapably affect each other.
Religious hot wars (such as the Crusades) are left in the depth of history. From now on it seems impossible to break out another war just because of religious reasons between two countries or communities. However, a “desire” and an “effort” to “make a hit with someone” or “impose religion on someone” will never end and even will gain speed with the help of technological and economical conditions.
In activities called “missionary” which are actually “religion export” –unfortunately- Muslims are only a “target group”. As a result of some of their unsolved problems such as social unrest, economical inadequacies, technological neediness and nonchalance Muslim communities cannot avoid being an “appropriate target”.
Nowadays when the position of the world is taken into consideration we have two major duties: “to be in the dialog and negotiation platform” and “protect our identity and moral character”.
It is inappropriate to say “interfaith dialogue is impossible or inessential”; because present conditions necessitate it. For instance, fight against terrorism or drugs require every single person, no matter what his/her religion is, to act in unison in order to provide peace in society and protect the environment and people’s health.
What we need to do is to see other side’s rights and wrongs and then agree with the rights but disagree with the wrongs, instead of “neglect him/her” or “approve unconditionally”.
B.
Two essentials of Islam are to believe Prophets and Holy Books. Qur’an declares this necessity as an injunction, not as a simple recommendation. Ones who deny prophets and Holy books of Allah are not considered as Muslims.
“O you, who have believed, believe in Allah and His Messenger and the Book that He sent down upon His Messenger and the Scripture which He sent down before. And whoever disbelieves in Allah, His angels, His books, His messengers, and the Last Day has certainly gone far astray.”[1]
Again Qur’an honours Muslims who believe in Prophets and Holy Books:
All of them have believed in Allah and His angels and His books and His messengers, [saying], "We make no distinction between any of His messengers." And they say, "We hear and we obey."[2]
When Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) was asked “what is faith?”, he especially mentioned “believing in Prophets and Holy Books”.[3]
Therefore, a Muslim has to believe not only in Qur’an and Prophet Muhammad but also in the fact that Torah is the word of Allah and Moses is the prophet of the children of Israel
C.
When we examine Qur’an we can find a lot of information about previous societies, prophets and books.
Qur’an tells about the children of Adam, Noah and the flood, Abraham and his family, Lot and his society, Jacob and his sons, Shoaib (Jethro) and Midian district, Moses, Harun (Aaron) and Pharaoh and the people around him, David and Solomon, Zechariah and Johanna (John the Baptist) and Mary and her son Jesus Christ. In total lives and struggle of 25 prophets are told in Qur’an.
“And We gave to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - all [of them] We guided. And Noah, We guided before; and among his descendants, David and Solomon and Job and Joseph and Moses and Aaron. Thus do We reward the doers of good. And Zechariah and John and Jesus and Elias – and all were of the righteous. And Ishmael and Elisha and Jonah and Lot - and all [of them] We preferred over the worlds.”[4]
“And mention in the Book, Moses. Indeed, he was chosen, and he was a messenger and a prophet.”[5]
“Jesus was not but a servant upon whom We bestowed favour, and We made him an example for the Children of Israel.”[6]
“And [mention] the one who guarded her chastity, so We blew into her [garment] through Our angel [Gabriel], and We made her and her son a sign for the worlds.”[7]
Qur’an gives information about Torah, Psalm and The Evangel as well.
“And We gave Moses the Scripture, after We had destroyed the former generations, as enlightenment for the people and guidance and mercy that they might be reminded.”[8]
“… And We have made some of the prophets exceed others [in various ways], and to David We gave the book [of Psalms].”[9]
“And We sent, following in their footsteps, Jesus, the son of Mary, confirming that which came before him in the Torah; and We gave him the Gospel, in which was guidance and light and confirming that which preceded it of the Torah as guidance and instruction for the righteous.”[10]
D.
Qur’an declares that societies did not keep their promises, made fun of the prophets and distorted holy books in the past.
“Do you covet [the hope, O believers], that they would believe for you while a party of them used to hear the words of Allah and then distort the Torah after they had understood it while they were knowing?”[11]
E.
As a Muslim with what I have learned from Qur’an, I wanted to examine Torah, Psalms and The Evangel which are nowadays called “Old and New Testament” by Christians.
I went through the history, collection and standardization period of The Bible which consists of hundreds of parts and thousands of sentences.
I took notes on the critics of Muslim scholars like Ibn Hazm (death: A.D. 1064) al-Qarafee (death: A.D. 1286) İbn Khaldoun (death: A.D. 1406) İbn Taimiyyah (death: A.D. 1328) Rahmatullah al-Hindi (death: A.D. 1888) and Jewish scholars like Hivi el-Balhi (A.D. 10th century), Baruch Spinoza (death: A.D. 1677) who was excommunicated in 1656 and Sigmund Freud (death: A.D. 1939).
I also examined the books of Spanish Anselmo Turmeda (15th century) and Dawid Benjamin Kaldani (20th century) who converted to Islam and a Christian scholar Thomas Michel who worked for Jesuit Secretariat in Vatican
F.
I came across with some interesting findings:
1. There are some sentences about the divine attributes of Allah, Prophets and blessings in The Bible that are in accordance with Qur’an. (A lot of sentences in Ten Commandments, Proverbs of Old Testament, some sentences in Psalm 1 and some sentences in Sermon on the Mount and epistles of St. Paul
2. Although the image of God is portrayed as someone who “gets tired/takes a rest”, “forgets/remembers”, “yells like a drunk”, “regrets what he has done”, “gets angry with people”, “gets jealous of others”, “swears”, “cheats/deceives”, “is cruel” in Old Testament, the same God is portrayed as someone who “hands over his responsibilities and personality to Jesus and disappears” in New Testament. The image of God in The Bible totally contradicts with the belief Allah in Qur’an. Sentences like Moses’ giving directions to God like “Stand up God!, Turn around God!”, challenging God like “Did I give birth to them, that you should say to me, “Carry them in your bosom?”, God’s whistling to gather Jews in Old Testament and God’s creating universe by means of Jesus in New Testament are really weird.
3. There are also humiliating sentences about almost all the prophets. Prophets whom are loved and honoured by Muslims are accused of “jugglery, getting a married woman pregnant, feigning madness and worshipping idols”, these insults and slanders are not suitable for a book which is claimed to be “the word of God”. (The story of Lot and his daughters and expressions like Ishmael’s being called “wild ass”, Jacob’s playing a trick in order to be sanctified instead of his brother Esau, David’s feigning madness, putting a young and beautiful girl in David’s bed who cannot get hot with blankets and comforters, Solomon’s going after women and going astray, Jesus’ who can resurrect death cursing a tree which does not bear fruit in the season, Jesus’ scolding his mother etc. upset Muslims who esteem and adore all prophets.)
4. On reading the expressions of killing a lot of people from babies to white-haired men or drinking blood, one cannot help himself thinking of “What kind of hatred is this?” or “What kind of conscious is this?”
5. In the Book of Isaiah God calls Jews “children of a harlot” which is very bizarre. Can a God call his creatures like this? What does “as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you” mean and how can it be explained?
6. The relationship between husband and wife is likened to the relationship between God and human beings. Besides the behaviour of a community is described as the behaviour of a prostitute. These are strange comparisons as well.
7. There are also some discrepancies about the dates; for instance, the men of Abraham are told to enter a town which was built 800 years later, David, who died 30 years earlier, is said to be provoked either by God or by Satan in order to count the kingdom which was split into two parts as Israel and Judah in 931 B.C. or during the counting at the time of David the district is mentioned under the name which was given 30 years later. Sentences like these and the results of the above mentioned counting make the reader perturb about the fact that the book is word of God.
8. How can the chronological mistake about the generation line of Jesus be explained? In the line, counting back from Jesus, Mary and his father took place after Mary's husband (or fiancé) Joseph and his father.
9. In my opinion, while Paul was torturing Christians in the beginning, after the crucifixion of Jesus, when Jesus was loved by everyone, he managed to be the “second man” with Damascus discipline which he made up after being jealous of this love. What does the expression “his announcing himself as the servants of God’s secrets and stewards of God’s mysteries”, the sentences like “I overcame you with cunningness and trick” “I robbed the churches as a price”, “no one should think that I am a fool” “If we have sown spiritual good among you, is it too much if we reap your material benefits?” mean? How can this be interpreted?
10. While Peter was warning people about fake prophets[12], did he mean “Paul who is cursed as he hung Jesus on a tree? When Jesus warned everyone about these long ago[13], did he inform people about what would happen in the future?
11. There are hundreds of discrepancies in all The Bibles in all over the world.
12. In the world and in places like Turkey
Examples of changes in English text
AMERICAN STANDART VERSION 1901 Philip Schaff
2Sa 6:23 “And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child unto the day of her death.”
2Sa 21:8 “... and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she bare to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite”
THE AMPLİFİED BİBLE 1987 Frances Siewert
2 Sam 6:23 “And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.”
2 Sam 21:8 “… and the five sons of [Merab] daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel son of Barzillai the Meholathite.”
AMERİCAN STANDART VERSİON 1901 Philip Schaff
2Ki 24:8 “Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign; and he reigned in Jerusalem
2Ch 36:9 “Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign; and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of Jehovah.”
THE AMPLİFİED BİBLE 1987 Frances Siewert
2 Kin 24:8 “Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began his three-month reign in Jerusalem
2 Chr 36:9 “Jehoiachin was eight[een] years old then; he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem
G.
Although The Bible ascribes a lot of deficiencies to God, from tiredness to amnesia, slanders Prophets with incest relationships or deceitfulness, insulting physical handicapped people but still has some positive sentences in it, Muslims will always continue to believe in Allah, Prophets and Holy Books as a necessity of their religion.
Allah is one and above all deficiencies.
Prophets are distinguished and esteemed people who are paragons of belief and morals. They are the leaders who guide people through the path of goodness and who offer people happiness both in this and in the after death lives.
Let the last sentence be said by Qur’an: “To each of you We prescribed a law and a method. Had Allah willed, He would have made you one nation [united in religion], but [He intended] to test you in what He has given you; so race to [all that is] good. To Allah is your return all together and He will [then] inform you concerning that over which you used to differ.” [al-Maidah (5): 48]
Yusuf Ulucan
Translation: H. Neslihan Demiriz
[1] Al-Nisa (4) : 136
[2] Al-Baqarah (2) : 285
[4] Al-An’am (6) : 84-86
[5] Al-Maryam (19) : 51
[6] Al-Zukhruf (43) : 59
[7] Al-Anbiya (21) : 91
[8] Al-Qasas (28) : 43
[9] Al-Isra (17) : 55 (Also look An-Nisa (4) : 163-the last sentence of the ayah)
[10] Al-Maidah (5) : 46
[11] Al-Baqarah (2): 75 (Also look Al-Baqarah(2): 78-79, Al-Maidah (5): 41)
[12] 2 Peter (The 2nd epistle of Peter): 2/1-3
[13] Matthew 7/15
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